UrbanOrgs member Scott Allard discusses latest poverty figures on Chicago Public Radio

September 30, 2009 at 11:44 am | In news, poverty | Leave a Comment

The following story was featured on Chicago Public Radio on September 29, 2009:

Poverty Levels Are Expected to Rise in 2009

The number of Illinois residents living in poverty grew by about a quarter million from 2000 to 2008. That’s according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, today.

12.2 percent of Illinoisans and almost 15 percent of Cook County residents were living in poverty in 2008. Scott Allard is professor at the University of Chicago’s school of social service administration. He says he doesn’t expect the poverty level to decline for another few years.

ALLARD: There’s a lot of people who aren’t going to be going back to work anytime soon. And that even though some economic indicators are showing that we’re emerging out of recession, many people are not getting called back to work, or their lost earnings aren’t being replaced.

Allard says the current recession and the economic downturn earlier in the decade contribute to higher rates of poverty around the country. He says poverty is hitting more families and people living in suburban areas.

According to 2009 federal guidelines, a household of four with an annual income below $22,050 is considered to be living in poverty.

For an audio version, visit

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=37095

Katherine Chen publishes book on Burning Man organization

September 28, 2009 at 5:47 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

chenbookResearchers interested in how urban organizations emerge, recruit members, secure resources, learn management strategies, and establish collaborations may find numerous lessons from a study of an organization whose members meet yearly in the middle of a Nevada desert.   From the publisher: “In the summer of 2008, nearly fifty thousand people traveled to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to participate in the countercultural arts event Burning Man. Founded on a commitment to expression and community, the annual weeklong festival presents unique challenges to its organizers. Over four years Katherine K. Chen regularly participated in organizing efforts to safely and successfully create a temporary community in the middle of the desert under the hot August sun.  Enabling Creative Chaos tracks how a small, underfunded group of organizers transformed into an unconventional corporation with a ten-million-dollar budget and two thousand volunteers. Over the years, Burning Man’s organizers have experimented with different management models; learned how to recruit, motivate, and retain volunteers; and developed strategies to handle regulatory agencies and respond to media coverage. This remarkable evolution, Chen reveals, offers important lessons for managers in any organization, particularly in uncertain times.”  Chen volunteered with and studied the organization for four years.

The costs of calulating poverty

September 14, 2009 at 12:35 pm | In NYT, news, poverty | Leave a Comment
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If you’re raising a family of four on $26K, you may believe that your current checkbook balance is enough to qualify your household for federal assistance.  And in New York, at least, you’d be right.  Beginning with recommendations provided by the National Academy of Sciences, NYC set out to reform their decades-old guidelines by issuing new measures of poverty based on 2006 census data.  The new calculations go a step further than traditional measures, considering living expenses such as healthcare and childcare costs.  The result, according to backers of the new formula, is a more realistic picture of today’s world. They’re pushing the federal government to make a similar change.

To read the full article and listen to the story on National Public Radio, please click here.

To see the working paper on which this story was based, click here.

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